Living in India: January 2020

Saturday, January 18, 2020

On the day of Chhath puja, Death and Birth

Chhath Puja is a very big festival in northern India, especially in Bihar, UP, and Odisha.

In the puja, people pray to the Sun god and fast for 3 days continuously.

On the third day of the Puja, I got both a good news and bad news.

In the early morning, a student went to a river for the ceremony,
and he had been found to have drowned in the river.

He was Ranjay who studied in 9th grade in our school, Surya Bharti.

The place where the incident happened was
the same place where Deepak and Asish were drawn to death in 2006.

these incidents have me thinking, Do pure souls go to heaven to be near god earlier than others?

Ranjay was a really nice boy.

I stayed at home because I wasn't feel well that morning.
(I go to the river to take photos every year though.)

It was Then, I got a phone call from the principal.

He was just 17 years old.

Just the same as my children.

I couldn't prepare my mind to say goodbye to him
because it was just so sudden.

And in the evening, the same day, I got a good news.

Our Ex-student Sandeep became a father!

People die.

People are born.

We are living on the earth within a relentless flow.

Many types of disaster happen all over the world.

I thought I have to be thankful I'm alive today.

I pray for Ranjay's soul to rest in peace.
May he rest in peace.

2 students went to Japan tour and experienced Homestay!

2 students went to Japan and experienced Homestay!

On 6th December 2019,

2 students of Bodhgaya Nihongo(Japanese) Class

(they are also teachers of basic class)

departed for Japan!

Vikas was so excited to get on the flight for the first time in his life!

So we gave him the window seat.

And he screamed unintentionally when the flight began to fly!

I recorded the moment in the video!（↑）

We safely arrived at Kansai International airport via Bangkok.

We went to my house in Kyoto by bus from the airport.

And, the host family came to pick them up!

(Their Japan tour was realised with co-operation of Angel Aid Association)

www.angelaidassociation.org ）

And, Experiencing the real Osaka!

After visiting a company, the CEO invited us for dinner in Izakaya in Osaka,

and they ate various kinds of Japanese food.

They ate Sashimi-raw fish!

(Indians don't eat raw fish in their culture)

After this experience, they got used to eating and enjoying raw fish.

They are quite the challengers!

They got on Shinkansen-bullet train for the first time!

from Nagoya to Shinyokohama.

It was their first time buying lunchbox at the station.

(Although They selected sandwich...!)

After getting off the bullet train, they practiced the method of throwing
the box and bottles separately into different dust bins, at the station.

They ate Unagi/eel fish in Kyoto for the first time!
(My husband who is an Indian likes it very much)
The sauce was sweet but the eel fish tastes very nice, they said.

(They don't usually like sweet taste meals)

And we visited a house construction company at Ayabe in Kyoto.
They visited the construction site whose building structure was built in just a day.
And they even got to visit model rooms and
were very surprised to see the latest technique of
Japanese wooden construction.

After that, we had a party with the carpenters
who built the library hall in India,
which is in Surya bharti school both these students were from.
They were also there to help the carpenters together at that time.
They learned how to do Dekopin game from the carpenters, and
ate various Japanese foods and cake!
It was so fun!

Construction of the library hall in India

They stayed about 2 weeks with the host family who took care of them very much.
The host family taught them how to cook, how to fold Futon, how to clean,
how to throw garbage etc..
They learned about the Japanese life style.

They visited companies, factory, city hall, and high school.
They also had meeting and party with the supporters
of Angel Aid Association in many places.

They learned how to buy train ticket.

At the end of the tour,
we went to Nara.

Since they are very familiar with cows and goats,
they got used to deers really quickly which was nice to see.

When we visited the great Buddha statue in Todai-ji temple,
it reminded them of Bodhgaya.

On 24th December, with the completion of Japan tour, they flied back to Gaya airport via Bangkok.
(They had a one day trip in Bangkok which we will give you the report about later!)

They are studying Japanese language with more efforts
after coming back from Japan,
with lots of good memories.

We give thanks to all the people we met and those who
helped take care of them in Japan!
I hope you will support them in the future as well!

New Year Party! First writing Japanese Calligraphy and fire festival!

New Year Party! First Japanese Calligraphy writing

and fire festival!

Bodhgaya Nihongo(Japanese) Class had New year party on 12th January 2020!

At first, we had Japanese calligraphy class

and did "Kakizome" which is the first writing of the year.

It was the first time experience for most of the students.

I was surprised to see how the students

who had just started to learn Japanese

a few months ago had written so very nicely!

Some students remember very difficult Kanji like

「頑張ろう」

and wrote it.

I used to learn Japanese calligraphy when I was a child,

and qualified first dan.

But it was a few decades ago,

so if you found any mistake, please forgive me.

After writing Kakizome, we went outside of the class room,

and had Janken game(Rock Paper Scissors) together with everyone.

And the winner got Mochi rice cake.

I thought to put the mochi into Miso soup like Zouni soup,

but the winner said he tasted Miso soup and didn't like it.

So he ate the Mochi without any taste.

I served Miso soup to the students who can eat non-veg

because the soup has dashi (soup made up of fish).

Most of the students said they liked it.

After that, we had Dondo(Tondo) Yaki fire festival.

Actually, there is a festival called "Lohri" in India which is very similar to Dondo Yaki.

In Japan, Dondo yaki festival is usually held around 15th January.

Many places in Japan held it on 12th, perhaps because it was Sunday this year.

India's Lohri festival is held on 13th January every year.

Lohri festival is celebrated in the sate of Punjab, mainly by Hindus and Sikhs,

to mark and celebrate the end of winter.

The way of burning woods in Lohri festival is very similar to Japan's Dondo-Yaki festival.

We have started celebrating Dondo-Yaki festival in BNC since last year.

I had a great time celebrating together with my Indian students

and remembering the memory of "Tondosan"

when I was a child and participated in it in the nearby park back in Japan.

Teacher's day celebration at Bodhgaya Nihongo(Japanese) Class

5th September, I went to attend "Teacher's day celebration" to Surya Bharti School (run by NGO Children Aid) in the morning.

And, in the afternoon, I was supposed to attend "Teacher's day celebration" at an Institution in Gaya, but unfortunately, my younger daughter had high fever, so I had to postpone.

And, in the evening, we had "Teacher's day celebration" at BNC(Bodhgaya Nihongo Class).